Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to systems and associated methods for delivering a cooled fluid during treatment of a patient.
Description of the Related Art
Several conventional medical treatments include supplying a cooled liquid directly to the human body. For example, a cooled liquid may be supplied to the blood stream to cool an organ, such as the brain, to protect the organ from injury.
Other conventional medical treatments include supplying a cooled liquid to a device used to treat the human body. For example, several particularly effective treatments for pulmonary disorders are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,088,127, titled, “Systems, Assemblies, and Methods for Treating a Bronchial Tree,” and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0152855, titled, “Delivery Devices With Coolable Energy Emitting Assemblies.” In one example treatment described in these documents, a pulmonary treatment system delivers energy to damage a nerve trunk extending along an airway of a patient. In this example, the energy is delivered to a coolable energy emitter assembly and, simultaneously, chilled fluid is delivered to the energy emitter assembly to cool the energy emitter assembly to avoid or limit destruction of non-targeted tissue.
Conventional coolant supply systems typically include a pump which pumps a liquid coolant from a reservoir to the patient and/or treatment device. Depending on the type of therapy being performed, conventional liquid coolant supply systems can include relatively large reservoirs containing as much as five gallons of liquid coolant from which liquid coolant is supplied to the thermal therapy catheter. The liquid coolant contained within the large reservoir is, in many cases, simply maintained at room temperature. Other conventional liquid coolant supply systems have closed loop systems in which fluid is pumped from a reservoir and back to the reservoir after circulation through a device in a patient.